Apple TV replaced by Netgear EVA
by Volker Weber
Today I wanted to write something nice about the Apple TV. It had been chugging along just nicely, playing all my content without much fuss. Yes, it prove to be too slow to play HD content, and yes, it was drawing a lot of standby power. But it never really failed.
Until today.
Tonight it somehow decided that it wanted to update itself to 2.3. A few weeks ago it had asked nicely, but since I did not want to reinstall all the necessary patches, I declined its update request. Well, today it did update and turned itself into the useless box it was when it came out of the box. Patching it again turned out to be unsuccessful, so it is being turned into a paper weight, until all the patches have been successfully tested with 2.3. Then there will be a short opportunity to use it again to its full potential, until Apple decides to destroy it all again with another software update.
For now, I just plugged in the EVA8000, which can perform all those things out of the box.
Comments
I'm considering to buy an EVA (to hook it up with my ReadyNAS), but I fear that Netgear is already planning to release a successor for the EVA8000. Do you have any information about that?
Thx,
Gerald
I don't have any hard evidence, but the EVA8000 has been long enough in the market to have a successor.
Hi,
thanks, this evening I read about the upcoming Netgear 9000 or Netgear Digital Entertainer Elite. (pat-on-head)
Bye,
Gerald
Thank you for the links, Gerald. Now I know what I will wait for ;-)
Not to rain on your parade, but I will not tolerate a fan next to my TV.
A problem easily solved with a screwdriver ... until it begins to smell weird one time ...
After what i've read a better alternative to the EVA8000 has to be the HDX 1000. A Syabas based design with the latest chipset, playing nearly everything, if you look at the specs. How it compares to an upcoming Netgear 9000 is of course yet to be determined. But it has no fan!
@Dirk - I have a Syabas NMT device and I highly recommend it. The top models are the Popcorn Hour, HDX 1000 and the iStarHD. I have the iStar and it performs very well with silent playback.
No server software or indexing required, you just browse the shares on your network as required.
I have an other magic word: eeePC Box works like a charm and the up comming versions will have directly HDMI on board.
@Ben - I'm in your camp. I have been running a Popcorn Hour for 9 months now. For a short time, I installed a HD in the unit but now I just feed it from my ReadyNAS. I am very happy (but not totally happy) - I have not found out how to bookmark Internet Radio Stations.
@Glen,
For bookmarking Internet Radio Stations, you should buy a Sonos ;)
@Ben - I did :-)
